emotional structure, the transformational character arc, and developmental edits

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Savvy in general and random thoughts

A couple of years back, I had this idea for a workshop--it was way too geeky for workshops in general, and the title was scary, although titles have been getting geekier over the past year and it's not so bad in retrospect. I was lucky Sharon took a chance on me, even luckier she was one of the founding mothers of savvyauthors, because she took me along with her willy-nilly, and I've been fortunate enough to count some--if not fans, at least well-wishers and neutral bodies in the savvy hierarchy. I like working for RWA chapters, because *points to self* I'm a romance writer, but savvy is special. I like the way they draw from across the genres, and I like the strong sense of community. It's sort of like eharlequin, without harlequin.

They switched over to a new site and like all things struggling to grow into an identity, underwent a sea change. I was so startled to see myself labeled "author, editor and writing coach" I went blank. I work on stories, I talk about stuff I like, and I write whenever the brainpower comes back to me. I'm fortunate and blessed to have part of my life reflect the piece of me my first college English teacher told me wasn't worth developing, and I'm blessed to have people actually read Emotional Structure. I thought I was going to have to shelve it after the last workshop. Attendance was down and it wasn't economically viable anymore, but it was still one of my favorites along with Prologue Structure (if you registered for prologue structure, email me at jodi henley @ gmail dot com and I'll send you a pdf of the workshop since it's never going to happen no matter how many times it's postponed). One day, hopefully soon, when I have a breather, I'll put out the Arc book, the next arc podcast and do a video. But for right now, I'm content to be happy and live in the moment, reading Basho and listening to the leaves rustle. My favorite haiku:

2 comments:

I get the freeze thing. It's always shocking when someone else puts a label on us that we hadn't realized was descriptive of just the way we are and do things. But honestly, Jodi, you've been coaching writers since I've met you. =) And thank you for that!

lol, when we first met people used to run and tell their cps I'd commented on their post in the crit boutique. Back then I always suspected people wished they had some kind of filter to keep me out. :) You and Kimberley were always really nice to me, and I appreciate that.